Dail
Anglicized form of the Irish name Dáibhidh meaning "beloved".
Name Census estimates that about 256 living Americans carry the first name Dail. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 76.0% of registrations being male. The average person named Dail today is around 73 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Dail births was 1952 (29 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Dail. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Dail is about 73 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Dails were born before 1963.
People living today
256
~ 1 in 1,338,884 Americans
Peak year
1952
29 babies that year
Average age
73
years old
1993 SSA rank
#4,837
Tracked since 1912
Census
Dail in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 473 people with the first name Dail, which placed it at #21,475 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#21,475
National first-name rank
People counted
473
473 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
71.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Dail
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dail is White at 71.0%. The next largest groups are Black (15.0%) and Hispanic (7.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Dail described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Dail at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White71.0% · 336
- Black or African American15.0% · 71
- Hispanic or Latino7.2% · 34
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.2% · 15
- Two or more races2.7% · 13
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 4
Gender
Gender distribution for Dail
Dail is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 604 total registrations, 459 (76.0%) were male and 145 (24.0%) were female.
Dail as a male name
- Ranked #8,981 in 1993
- 5 male births in 1993
- Peak: 1921 (22 births)
Dail as a female name
- Ranked #4,837 in 1960
- 8 female births in 1960
- Peak: 1952 (16 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Dail on both sides of the split. Of the 468 people counted with this name, 249 were male (53.2%) and 219 were female (46.8%).
Popularity
Dail: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Dail from the 1910s through to the 1990s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 156 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Dail by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Dail during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Dails live
Origin
Meaning and history of Dail
The name Dail is believed to have originated from the Irish Gaelic language, where it was likely derived from the word "dail," meaning a meeting or assembly. This suggests that the name may have initially been associated with individuals who played a prominent role in local gatherings or councils within ancient Irish communities.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Dail can be found in the Annals of the Four Masters, a chronicle of medieval Irish history compiled in the 17th century. It mentions a figure named Dail Cais, who was a prominent warrior and ancestor of the Dalcassian dynasty that ruled parts of what is now County Clare, Ireland, in the 10th and 11th centuries.
In the realm of Irish mythology, the name Dail is also associated with the character of Dail Dermuid, a legendary figure who was said to have been a skilled warrior and hunter. This connection further reinforces the potential link between the name and ideas of leadership and prowess in ancient Irish culture.
Moving forward in history, one notable figure bearing the name Dail was Dail Whitelock (1588-1676), an English Puritan minister and influential figure during the English Civil War. He served as a member of the Westminster Assembly, which was responsible for producing the Westminster Confession of Faith, a significant document in the history of Protestantism.
Another individual of note was Dail Brathwaite (1938-1994), a Barbadian poet and writer who was an influential figure in the Caribbean literary scene. His works, such as "Rights of Passage" and "Black + Black = Black," explored themes of identity, race, and the Caribbean experience.
In more recent times, Dail Ambrose (born 1945) is a former American football player who played as a defensive back in the National Football League (NFL) for the Miami Dolphins and the Washington Redskins in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Lastly, Dail Eibhir Ó Brádaigh (1924-2013) was an Irish republican and politician who served as the fourth Chief of Staff of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and later as the President of the political party Sinn Féin from 1970 to 1983.
People
Dail + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Dail as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with D
Other first names starting with D with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Dail: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Dail?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 256 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Dail going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 1,338,884 US residents.
Is Dail a common name?
We classify Dail as "Very Rare". It ranks above 77.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 604 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Dail most popular?
The single biggest year for Dail was 1952, when 29 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Dail is about 73 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Dail in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 473 people with the name Dail, or 0.16 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #21,475 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Dail in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Dail?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Dail on both sides of the split. Of the 468 people counted with this name, 249 were male (53.2%) and 219 were female (46.8%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Dail?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dail is White at 71.0%. The next largest groups are Black (15.0%) and Hispanic (7.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Dail most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Dail in the 2020 Census, accounting for 71.0% (336 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Dail in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Dail a male name?
Yes, 76.0% of people registered as Dail in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Dail still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Dail in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Dail can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How common is the name Dail?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.